Knobs are commonly used on a variety of commercial and residential appliances to control an operating condition of the appliance. Knobs are particularly common on cooking appliances, such as stoves or cooktops (also known as ranges or hobs, respectively). Various shapes and sizes can be used depending upon e.g., the intended application, aesthetics, and other factors.
For example, cooktops traditionally have at least one heating element positioned at a cooktop surface for use in heating or cooking an object, such as a cooking utensil, and its contents. The at least one heating element may heat a cooking utensil directly through induction heating, or may use another heat source such as electrically resistant coils or gas burners. In gas burner cooktops, air is required for the combustion of the gas fuel. For that reason, some gas burner cooktops have air intake openings to allow for a sufficient amount of air intake to meet the combustion requirements of the gas burners. These openings are sometimes located beneath the knobs. When this is the case, some gas cooktops have a light source installed below air intake openings located underneath the knobs so that the light may shine through the openings and communicate certain conditions to the user, such as e.g., whether the knob is in an “on” position.
Certain challenges exist with this construction, however. Such construction, for example, does not use light emitted through the openings to communicate rotation of the control knob. As such, this construction cannot rely upon light to provide indicia regarding movement or position of the control knob.
Accordingly, an improved control knob assembly that uses light to indicate movement and position of the control knob would be beneficial. In particular, it would be advantageous to provide an improved knob assembly that provides variable illumination to a predetermined visual region while limiting light projected from other regions of the knob assembly (i.e., as bleed lighting).